Automotive manufacturers upholster many components in the interior of automotive vehicles. For example, upholstering is commonly used to cover automotive seats, interior door panels, center arm rests, and cargo compartments. Many manufacturers prefer to include upholstery having a sculpted or contoured shape. For example, most automotive seat backs and seat bottoms include an interior or center portion bordered on each side by raised bolsters. This provide lateral support for the seat occupant.
Many manufacturers also prefer to include upholstery with a two-toned or varied appearance. That is, many manufactures prefer to provide seats and door panels having a patterned fabric in some sections, such as the interior of the seat back and the seat bottom, and a solid fabric in other sections, such as the outboard bolsters of the seat back and seat bottom. Such patterning provides a distinct look to the automotive interior.
To upholster automotive seats using conventional techniques, multiple fabric panels are cut from bulk fabric rolls and are sewn together to form a cover. For example, a conventional seat bottom cover is made with separate panels for the interior, both bolsters, the front face, and the two side faces. In this case, multiple panels must be cut from a fabric roll to provide the material required to cover a seat.
If a two-toned look is desired, a first fabric roll is required to provide material for the panels of the first or patterned portion of the cover (i.e., the interior) while a second fabric roll is required to provide material for the panels of the second or solid portion of the cover (i.e., the bolsters). Multiple panels are required to be cut out since each portion of the cover originates from a separate fabric roll. The discrete fabric panels must then be sewn together to form the cover.
While the above conventional technique is widely employed, there is room for improvement in the art. For example, the conventional technique requires numerous fabric panels to be individually cut from bulk rolls. Also, a two toned cover requires multiple rolls of different appearing material to be purchased, shipped and stored. This requires great inventory and labor expense, as well as excess scrap, all at increased costs.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide a one piece cover for upholstering an automotive interior component such as a seat or door panel. Advantageously, by providing a one piece pattern, many of the panels required to be cut from bulk rolls in the conventional process can be eliminated. Further, a printing process can be used to dye a preselected area of the cover pattern with a design which, when the cover is placed in use, resides along a pre-selected portion of the component to be covered such as the interior of the seat back and seat bottom. The remaining portions of the cover pattern may be left un-dyed so that other portions of the component, such as the outboard bolsters of the seat back and seat bottom, are covered with fabric having a different appearance (i.e., non-dyed) from that of the printed section. As such, a two-tone cover is provided without the need for multiple fabric rolls and numerous panel cuts.